Christmas 2021

by Steph // Sunday, January 9, 2022 // Comments off

Our Christmas celebration was wonderful!!

Was yours too?

It is such a fantastic time of the year!

We started preparing food a couple of days before Christmas Eve.

It was a fun job with lots of helpers!!

For Christmas Eve we had a huge finger food spread planned.

We focused on the sweet treats first, making our favorites.

Addie ran the kitchen this day and I do not even have a photo of her!

I do not have photos of all the yummy treats either, but it was a lot of fun making it all!

The next day we worked on the savory food.

My helpers were needed and I was thankful for them!

On Christmas Eve we always attend a candle light service at our church at 6 p.m.

My FAVORITE, favorite thing about Christmas!

There is SO much singing, and it is just incredibly worshipful and so beautiful!!

After church was over, we came home to enjoy our Christmas Eve hor d’oeuvres meal.

Yummy, yummy!

We planned to use the leftovers from this meal on Christmas day in the evening with Kay’s crew – so we made A LOT!

The next morning after everyone was up, dressed, and ready, we had the kids open up their stockings from Blake and I.

It was a sweet time!!

If you are wondering why Chad, Grant, and David’s stockings are so flat, it is because they only had a gift card in them!

Pretty soon Kay’s crew came over and we enjoyed a huge brunch.

We have a no cell phone rule on Christmas day, which means no photos were being taken with phones.

Even though I had out my big camera, I was terrible at getting photos!

After brunch, we had Kayla, David and the grand babies open their gifts from Blake and I and the kids also exchanged their gifts to each other.

Our seven children and David exchange names every year, and it is a fun tradition!!

Again, hardly any photos!

Chad won the prize for the most creative wrapping job!

That is a piano song book wrapped like a shirt!

These three boys were loving their matching shirts.

Last, but not least, is the cutest one year old on the planet.

Aspen Praise, NaiNai loves you!!!

It was THE BEST DAY!!

Spending time with our favorites is always at the top of my list as the best day ever!

As we celebrated Christmas and enjoyed the holidays, the Lord kept filling my heart and mind with the word ENOUGH.

His promise to us!

He is enough.

The fact that He sent His son is enough!

His plan for each of our lives is ENOUGH.

I just love this thought SO much.

I sure hope I can keep it at the forefront of my mind and heart every day as we move through this new year.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for sending Your Son to die for US.

Thank you, Jesus our Savior, for making a way for US.

What a privilege to celebrate Jesus’s birth!!

What a privilege to KNOW THE LORD!!

I hope that Christmas had you reflecting on ALL the Lord has allowed!!

SUCH A GIFT, isn’t it??!!

Hope each one of you had a very Merry Christmas!!

Happy GOLDEN Birthday, Chad Ryan!!

by Steph // Friday, January 7, 2022 // Comments off

It’s true.

Our gentle giant, Chad Ryan, is now 18 years old!

Eighteen on the eighteenth of December!!

We were blessed to be able to celebrate Chad with a meal of his choice, some gifts, and a delicious cake!

And I have exactly five photos of it all, thank you very much!

Chad chose marinated grilled steak, hasselback potatoes, green beans with bacon, a tossed salad and a fruit salad.

It was yummy!

Please take note of Chad’s fan club!!

Addie Mae made Chad’s cake!

We decided that we need to start making two cakes so there is enough to go around, ha, ha!

Chad’s Mama may have been the only one having ALL of the feelings that day!

They are all growing up way too fast for my liking!

Chad, you bring so much life to our lives and our home!

You are such a hard worker, full of quick wit that keeps us laughing, a good big brother and uncle, and a good friend to have!

We are SO thankful for you!!

Happy, Happy Birthday, Chad Ryan!!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!

December School Days

by Steph // Wednesday, January 5, 2022 // Comments off

We took a nice Christmas break, but we did have several weeks of school in December before that.

We have been doing a lot of very fun things, and we are doing them TOGETHER!

Ahhh, such a favorite!

The beginning of December brought our Advent Calendar – a book we have loved before and loved again.

The kids enjoy putting an ornament on the tree each day after our reading!

The beginning of December also brought Christmas hymns to our worship time.

We have some favorites that we like to sing!

It is always a goal of mine to have music playing in the house at some point throughout the day, so we listened to a lot of them too.

We stayed mostly on track those first weeks of December, but had a bit more flexibility in our schedule for the busyness the month brought.

Each day, no matter what was going on, we had our Bible time together, read aloud, and piano practice and lessons!

Those two cuties are excelling quickly in their piano skills, and their Mama had to up her game and study a bit to keep up with them.

I took piano lessons as a child but never continued with it and it has actually been fun to learn with Tate and Eliza!

We have read some GREAT books this year, and A Place to Hang the Moon is an all time favorite now!

We always made room for our water coloring art classes as well!

I LOVE water color as much as they do!!

Now that Christmas break is over, we are back into full days of school.

January through March usually brings the quietest time of year for us, as it is just so cold outside and we do not have as many things on our schedule!

There will be lots more school day posts to share!!

It is a BIG part of our world here!

If you haven’t read a good book or tried your hand at painting, I would encourage you to do so!

It is more fun than you would think!!

Happy New Year, friends!!

Here’s to some fun school days ahead!

The Rotary of Lights

by Steph // Monday, January 3, 2022 // Comments off

Every year for probably the last five years or so, some (or all of us!) have volunteered for an evening at the Rotary of Lights Christmas lights display in December.

This was the first year that I went along, and I hope to not miss it again!

There were a couple of years that Tate and Eliza were just too little, and another year where the weather was really bad – so I had stayed home with them.

Team Moschel was all together that night this year!

It was SUPER FUN!!

The weather was good for it this year – cold – but not windy, snowing, raining, or sleeting.

Our jobs were to collect money and food donations, load the food truck, and to direct traffic.

We were mostly together the whole night, except when Grant and Lane would run together to other drop off points to gather the food donations to go onto the food truck.

I stood at the spot where the cars were leaving the drive-though display holding the donation bucket and must of said “Merry Christmas! Don’t forget to turn your headlights back on!” close to 2,356 times, ha, ha!